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Thursday, 1 January 2015

Call for Tender, 1921

"Technical conditions for a call for tender

Tank destroyer:

Primary purpose: combat with enemy tanks.

Speed: at least 18 kph on firm flat terrain.

Armament: 3 inch mod. 1913 cannon with a 30-90 degree forward arc. The tank destroyer must have Fedorov Avtomats for self protection. A diagram for the installation of the gun and avtomats is in attachments 1, 2, and 3.

Ammunition capacity: 50 shells and 4000 rounds. Shells must be kept in special slots. Machinegun rounds must be placed in boxes, also held in slots. Both slots must have means to prevent the ammunition from falling out. The dimensions of a shell and a magazine are shown in attachments 4 and 5.

The tank should carry enough fuel and lubricant to drive for 20 hours at 10 kph on average.

The tank's height must be no greater than 2.5 meters, the height of tanks loaded on a rail car cannot exceed the dimension limits.

The suspension should be sprung if possible.

Crew: 4.

Medium tank:

Primary purpose: combat with enemy personnel.

Speed: at least 15 kph on firm flat terrain.

Armament: seven Maxim machineguns, positioned in such a way that no less than two machineguns can shoot from each side, no less than one for the front and rear, and one must be capable of shooting at aircraft.

Ammunition: 21000 rounds in 84 boxes. The tanks must have slots for 84 boxes with ammo belts. The slots must prevent the boxes from falling out. A sketch of the box is shown in attachment 6.

The tank should carry enough fuel and lubricant to drive for 30 hours at 7 kph on average.

The tank should not exceed railroad dimension limits when loaded on a rail car.

The suspension should be sprung if possible.

Crew: 8.

Large tank:

Primary purpose: combat with enemy personnel, trench artillery, and field fortifications in a positional war.

Speed: at least 12 kph on firm flat terrain.

Armament: 76 mm mod. 1913 gun with a 360 degree range, and five Maxim machineguns placed one on each side, one in the front and rear, and one for AA purposes. The Maxim guns should be sufficiently cooled. The design of the machinegun should ensure that the smallest possible part of the cooling system protrudes from the tank, and that part should be covered with armour. The gun mount and machinegun diagrams are in attachments 1 and 6.

Ammunition: 100 shells and 15000 machinegun rounds. Shells must be kept in special slots. Machinegun rounds must be placed in boxes, also held in slots. Both slots must have means to prevent the ammunition from falling out. The dimensions of a shell a sketch of a box are in attachments 4 and 7.

The tank should carry enough fuel and lubricant to drive for 20 hours at 7 kph on average. It is desirable to increase this to 30 hours if possible.

The tank should not exceed railroad dimension limits when loaded on a rail car. A special rail car should be designed due to its large weight.

The suspension should be unsprung.

Crew: 8

On all types of tanks:

Three engines may be used: 150 hp Ricardo, 90 hp Sanvim, or 52 hp Tailor. The diagrams of these engines are in attachments 8, 9, and 10.

The tracks should self-lubricate.

A fan must be installed to allow fresh air to circulate through the tank.

The tank outlines should have no sharply protruding elements. The tank destroyer should be a compact and low to the ground design.

The machineguns and avtomats should be placed in ball mounts.

The commander and crew must have uninterrupted communication.

The tank should have electric lighting.

It must be possible to install a wireless telephone in the tank. A diagram of the wireless telephone is in the attachment.

Tanks must be able to traverse country roads no wider than 3 meters, snow and mud, off-road paths, plowed fields, sand, and clay in all weather.

All tanks should be able to traverse a regular trench, grades of 30 degrees that are 200 meters long without overheating the engine, ditches, holes, and craters with sides up to 45 degrees steep, rocks and stumps up to 300 mm tall, rivers and streams up to half a meter deep.

The ground pressure must be no more than 0.4 kg/cm^2 for the tank destroyer and no more than 0.5 kg/cm^2 for the medium and large tanks.